hearthstone
Hearthstone: South East Asia Preliminary Result and Winning Decklists

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The South East Asia (SEA) Spring Preliminary took place on May 22, as players from seven different countries battled it out for just one place in the Asia-Pacific Spring Championship next month. The format was best of five Conquest, with a ban.

Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Indonesia were all represented in the event, which after all the qualifying was done, was played as a 32 player double elimination tournament. Winter champion, Staz, and WaningMoon had travelled back from China earlier in the day to take part in the event. In the WCA in China, Staz had finished in second place and WaningMoon finished third, losing to Staz along the way. When asked about the Preliminary, WaningMoon had commented that he was going to get his revenge.

As events transpired, he got his chance. Staz progressed through the upper bracket, while WaningMoon progressed to the semi-final, before dropping to the lower bracket and reaching the Grand Final from there. The event was played with Winners Advantage rules, which meant that if he was going to get his revenge, WaningMoon was going to have to beat Staz two matches in a row.

In the first match, Staz took an early 1-0 lead, beating Zoo with his Freeze Mage. His next deck was Hunter, a class that has been very lightly represented in recent tournaments. It looked like WaningMoon was going to show why Hunter is not in favour, as he beat it with both Zoo and Shaman. This convinced Staz to switch to his Shaman to take down Rogue, which levelled the scores. In the deciding game, Staz managed to assemble enough damage, with help from a pair of Huffers, to win the tournament for the second time in a row.

The VOD of the event is available here. I had the pleasure of being one of the casters, alongside Pathra.

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Warrior, Shaman, and Rogue have been struggling on the ladder lately, but these fresh new decks are looking to turn that around.
Warrior, Shaman, and Rogue have been struggling to find success lately, but that shouldn't stop you from playing them on the ladder! In this article, I break down the best decks for taking on the current meta from the three worst classes in the game.
It's been a couple of weeks since Hearthstone was hit by a major balance patch, which has given the metagame a healthy amount of time to adjust and adapt to the recent nerfs. Though a few of the top dogs from the pre-patch meta continue to be popular choices on the ladder (such as Cube Warlock and Aggro Paladin), and a couple of previously overlooked decks are now beginning to perform better than expected (Secret Mage and Spell Hunter), the new-look meta has proven itself to be much friendlier towards experimental decks than the previous one. Both Patches the Pirate and Raza the Chained were extremely oppressive to a variety of compelling and interesting strategies, which means their departure from standard should open the door up for a number of slower and grindier decks to flourish. For the remainder of the K&C metagame, this should be great news for fans of decks on the "control" end of the aggro-control spectrum.
It goes without saying that as the speed of a meta shifts, each of Hearthstone's nine classes stand to gain or lose major percentage points. For the time being, the classes in need of the biggest boosts to their win percentage are Rogue, Shaman, and Warrior.

Class winrates in Standard, courtesy of Hsreplay.net
Not only do these three classes boast the lowest winrates across all levels of play, they can also lay claim to three of the four lowest playrates.

Class playrates courtesy of metastats.net
If you're a fan of one of these three classes, it's time to go back to the drawing board and see what can be done to fix this! In theory, a meta which is trending slower and grindier should favor decks with powerful late-game plans and game-ending combos. If you can't go underneath the control decks with a speedy aggro deck of your own, the best way to beat slow and greedy decks is to be even slower and greedier than they are (mill strategies are a perfect example of this), or to find a way to combo-kill them in a single turn before they can end the game with their own win condition (Quest Rogue immediately comes to mind).
However, the reality of the current meta is very different from "slow and grindy". Four of the top five most played decks are aggro decks (Secret Mage, Aggro Paladin, Spiteful Priest, and Murloc Paladin) according metastats.net. The more things change, the more things stay the same, eh? With that in mind, let's take a look at a few new and unique decks from each of the weakest classes to see how we can take on the current meta.
Rogue
No class was hurt harder by the recent nerfs than Rogue. Arguably the best class in the game pre-patch, Tempo Rogue has fallen to a sub-par 47% winrate according to hsreplay.net. Though the nerfs to Patches the Pirate, Bonemare, and Corridor Creeper all hit the deck hard, Rogue is also being held back by the classes natural weakness against go-wide aggro strategies. With only Fan of Knives and Vanish (and sometimes Blade Flurry) as ways to deal with wide boards, Rogue often has a difficult time catching up when far behind on board. Though cards like Elven Minstrel and Vilespine Slayer do a great job of getting Rogue ahead in the first place, they don't have nearly as many ways to interact with a decent Call to Arms pull as the other classes do.
Though you could try to tech your favorite Rogue out with every defensive Neutral minion you can muster, this would have an equal-but-opposite negative effect on your control matchups. You can only sacrifice so many slots in your deck to aggro before you turn your good matchups into mediocre ones. It seems that the best bet for Rogue is to accept that you'll lose to the best draws from the best aggro decks, but that you might be able to beat their more mediocre or slower draws with a powerful midgame.
Gallon's Kingsbane Rogue
The first solid option for Rogue is a low-to-the-ground build of Kingsbane Rogue by Gallon, who peaked at rank 9 Legend with the deck two days ago:

This build of the deck skimps on cards like Tar Creeper and Fan of Knives to go all-in Kingsbane. It notably runs two Doomerangs and a pair of Counterfeit Coins to power out weapon-buffing minions like Captain Greenskin. The thing I love most about this list is that it knows exactly what it's trying to do (build a massive Kingsbane as quickly as possible) and it doesn't waste precious deck space pretending to be something it's not. It probably needs to draw really well to beat Aggro Paladin or Tempo Rogue, but that would probably still be the case even if the deck ran more defensive cards than it currently does.
Ryvius' Quest Rogue
The nerf to The Caverns Below all but killed the Quest Rogue archetype through Knights of the Frozen Throne, but Kobolds & Catacombs has provided the deck with plenty of shiny new toys. Both Zola the Gorgon and Sonya Shadowdancer give the deck even more ways to copy minions, while Wax Elemental provided the deck with a cheap tool to buy an extra turn or two of time both before and after Crystal Core is active.

Ryvius, a known Quest Rogue aficionado, was able to pilot this list as high as rank 8 Legend recently. He noted the deck is good as long you "avoid secret mage and aggro paladin", which will likely ring true for most successful Rogue lists right now.
Shaman
Whereas Rogue was in a great spot before the recent nerfs, Shaman has been in a rut since the release of K&C. Evolve strategies were happy to pick up Unstable Evolution from the latest set, but nerfs to Patches the Pirate, Bonemare, and Corridor Creeper dealt a major blow to Token/Evolve Shaman's power level.
Fortunately for Shaman fans, the class is equipped with a healthy number of tools for taking on aggro decks. Devolve, Maelstrom Portal, Jade Claws, Lightning Storm, and Volcano all do an excellent job at dealing with pesky aggressive minions, which gives Shaman a fighting chance against cards like Call to Arms and Aluneth. If you want to beat Aggro decks as Shaman, you can probably find a way to do that without having to get too creative. The trick is finding a way to beat Aggro with enough slots remaining in your deck to still beat Control decks.
Purple's Mill Shaman
Mill has classically been known as control-beater, so it stands to reason that any mill deck which can weather the storm against the current suite of Aggro decks should be a solid choice for the current meta. With that in mind, take a look at this beautiful monstrosity of a deck:

Purple was able to hold top 100 Legend with this list for 7 hours on stream. What's your excuse?
Jokes aside, I actually love the direction this deck is going in and think a list like this has a ton of potential. Murmuring Elemental and Grumble, Worldshaker do double-duty in this list, doubling the effectiveness of both Coldlight Oracle and Jade cards. Healing Rain and Jinyu Waterspeaker excel as both anti-aggro and anti-fatigue tools, bolstering the deck's early and late game at the same time. With so many cards in the deck performing multiple functions, its no surprise that Purple was able to find room in the deck for rarely-played cards such as Rummaging Kobold and The Runespear. As a big fan of Shaman, I can confidently state that this will be the next list I'm looking to test and tune for the competitive ladder.
Frescha's Mill Shaman
With so many Warlock's running around these days, Hex is probably as strong as it has ever been since its nerf last September. Until Rin, the First Disciple and Carnivorous Cube become less prevalent on the ladder, the best Shaman lists will probably run a pair of Hexes.
The fact that Murmuring Elemental, Jade Spirit, and Grumble, Worldshaker are all Elementals could also motivate a mill-focused strategy to build a bit more around the Elemental sub-theme, which is exactly what Frescha did with this list:

I love the additions of Hex and Kalimos, Primal Lord as tools for combating Warlock, and have always been a huge fan of Hot Spring Guardian in Elemental decks. Though it doesn't heal for quite as much as Healing Rain will in the late game, it serves as an excellent road block for aggro strategies and can even have its Battlecry doubled by Murmuring Elemental or Grumble, Worldshaker. The Skulking Geist serves a tool for beating both Jade Druid and Combo Priest, but can probably be swapped out for a Healing Rain or Rummaging Kobold if neither of those decks are popular on the ladder at your rank.
Overall, I'd expect that the "best Shaman mill deck" would be somewhere between Purple's and Frescha's lists. There's still plenty of room for growth and innovation within the archetype, and I look forward to much of that myself in the coming weeks.
Warrior
Warrior has been one of the worst classes in the game since the nerf to Fiery War Axe, and not much has happened in recent weeks to change that. Though Recruit decks showed some brief promise in the early-goings of the K&C meta, the archetype took up most of the new card slots from K&C and has failed to impress in the current ladder environment. I don't expect Recruit decks to suddenly become playable due to the popularity of aggro, but that doesn't that Warrior fans should give up hope. The three new "armor-matters" cards, Drywhisker Armorer, Reckless Flurry, and Geosculptor Yip, have largely been overlooked due to Warrior's abysmal playrates, but could potentially be used to shore up some of the classes old weaknesses.
It shouldn't be that hard for Warriors to beat aggro decks if they dedicate enough slots in their deck to do so. Whirlwind. Sleep with the Fishes, Brawl, and Blood Razor are excellent against wide boards out of Paladin decks, while Execute and Shield Slam can deal with problematically large minions out of Spiteful Summoner decks. Against the likes of Tempo/Secret Mage, Drywhisker Armorer and Bring It On! are capable of buying additional turns of time. The real question, once again, is how do we plan to beat Control after we have teched out our deck to beat Aggro?
Cocasasa's Mill Warrior
If Mill Shaman is somewhat viable right now, wouldn't a mill deck with two Dead Man's Hand be playable as well?
Cocosasa was able to reach top 100 Legend with this extremely low to the ground build of Mill Warrior. The deck features only one card that costs more than 5 mana, allowing it to consistently play to the board against go-wide aggro decks in the early game.

Cocosasa plays nearly every anti-aggro card I mentioned above, trimming on quite a few late-game cards to do so. Coldlight Oracle and Dead Man's Hand (and sometimes Zola the Gorgon) are the only cards which can actually win the game for you in this list. As the mill plan is the only plan with this deck, this particular build of Mill Warrior has less margin for error when playing against control decks than other builds might. If you're brand new to mill strategies in general, you might want to trim a Cornered Sentry or a Battle Rage for something which can stabilize the board for you on turn 10, such as Geosculptor Yip, Grommash Hellscream, or Rotface.
Fibonacci's Combo Warrior
Warrior has frequently been able to cobble together a wacky, janky, and totally off-meta combo deck each new expansion. Fibonacci has brewed up the latest (and hopefully greatest) Warrior deck with an OTK in it, though it would be a bit disingenuous to call this a "pure" combo deck.

As Fibonacci noted in this tweet, this is really an anti-aggro deck which happens to have an OTK in it. As the deck contains just 4 minions, you'll need to rely heavily on your spells to keep the board clear until Woecleaver can come down and pull out Grommash Hellscream for potential OTKs. The combo kill probably won't be as relevant against aggro decks, but it's a necessary evil for beating other control decks. I like this deck for a lot of the same reasons I like the Mill deck; it doesn't need to dedicate that many slots towards actually winning the game, so it is able to pack a diverse array of answers for aggro decks.
Conclusion
There is still plenty of time left in the Kobolds & Catacombs meta for the game's worst classes to turn things around. As the meta is currently leaning quite aggressively, any deck built to prey on aggro should be able to find some modicum of success on the ladder. Anti-aggro decks which can also afford to pack a lean and reliable late-game win condition, such as mill decks or combo decks, might also be able to find success against control decks with slower win conditions such as Rin, the First Disciple. Though I don't expect all of the above decks to become mainstays of the meta, I'd expect them all to perform admirably on the ladder in the right hands.

Anton "Dvck" Lund found his way out of a jam on the ladder. Can you?
Dvck and Aleco discuss the importance of planning ahead, understanding the meta, and knowing when to pivot your role in a matchup.
The player interviews I've done with RayC and TerrenceM have been some of the most fun and informative episodes of "What's the Move?", so I was very excited when Anton "Dvck" Lund reached out to me via reddit with a play from a recent game of his. Playing as Combo Dragon Priest, Dvck was able to find his way out of a tough spot against Murloc Paladin. Can you do the same?
In this week's episode, Dvck and I discuss the importance of planning ahead, understanding the meta, and knowing when to pivot your role in a matchup. For what ended up being a relatively short episode by "WTM" standards, I was pleasantly surprised by how much we were able to break down together so quickly. The interview with Dvck was as fun as it was informative, so I hope to have him back on the show soon! If you're interested in watching some high-legend gameplay, be sure to tune into Dvck's stream on twitch.tv.
You can look forward to a few more episodes about the Hearthstone World Championships in the coming weeks, but I always welcome submissions and suggestions for future episodes. Did you have a favorite play from the world championships? Feel free to link me the VOD here on Icy Veins or send me a message on twitter @Aleco_P.
Thanks for watching!

Kolento and ShtanUdachi found themselves in nearly identical situations at the world championships - but did they make the same decisions?
Episode 14 of "What's the Move?" discusses the importance of being mana efficient in the early game, as well as the relationship between speed and value.

The Hearthstone World Championships were full of incredible plays, sticky situations, and valuable lessons to be learned from the best players on the planet. There were far too many great plays to analyze in a single video, so for the next few episodes of "What's the Move?" I'll be breaking down all of my favorite plays from the World Championship weekend.
To kick things off we have a pair of Tempo Rogue vs. Highlander Priest matchups featuring Kolento and ShtanUdachi. Both players drew nearly identical opening hands, but did they did make same decisions?
If you managed to spot a particularly tricky or interesting play from the recent World Championships, please feel free to link it in the comment section below! I'd love to break down as many viewer-submitted topics as I can in the coming weeks and months, and I have little doubt that I may have missed some of the most fascinating plays from the tournament during my initial viewing.
Wishing you all the best of luck in the post-nerf meta!
- Aleco

Welcome to the post-Corridor Creeper meta.
Hearthstone Update 10.2 is now live worldwide and it's a big one!
The first change it brings are the nerfs to four cards that have terrorised dominated the meta up until now. Bonemare now costs 8 mana, Patches the Pirate no longer has Charge, Raza the Chained makes the Hero Power cost (1) instead of (0) and Corridor Creeper has been butchered down to 2 attack. You can read Aleco's interesting opinion piece on Blizzard's nerf policy here.
The second big addition of this patch is the Ranked Play update, which will take effect on March 2018. Players will now drop only 4 ranks with each monthly reset, all ranks will have 5 stars and you will only need to win 5 Ranked games to earn the monthly card back.
The Year of the Mammoth Bundle is also finally available on the Shop. For $19.99 or 19.99 EUR, you can get 30 packs - 10 for each of the Year of the Mammoth expansions (Un'Goro, KFT, K&C). Don't forget that the Quest for Packs event is still ongoing and an addition has been made to the grand prize winner reward: $1.200 (read here for more info)!
Lastly, the patch introduces the Wildfest event. From February 19 to March 11, Hearthstone is going Wild! Initially, you will be able to draft cards in Arena mode that are exclusive to Wild. Second, even though Tavern Brawl is usually on Wild format, there will be two special Wild Brawls. The first one is called "Venture Into the Wild" and it will just contain premade Wild decks for each class. The second one, "The Wild Brawlisseum", is basically a Wild Heroic Tavern Brawl, but with a major improvement: the first run will be free for everyone. You can read more about Wildfest here.
Below you can read the patch notes, which describe all the updates as well as various bug fixes. A massive change is that the timer for the first two turns will now be shorter!
Daxxarri
The tavern is buzzing with all the stuff that’s packed into this Hearthstone update! There’s a Ranked Play update, a Wild party, card changes, and a chance to save on packs with a new Mammoth Card Bundle! We managed to squeeze in some card backs and bug fixes too!

Whew! Read on for details!

Ranked Play Update – This Hearthstone update brings changes to Ranked Play, starting March 1st. Read the Ranked Play Updates blog for details!
Your reset will not be based on the stars you earned over the season. Instead, you’ll reset to four ranks below the highest rank you achieved during the season.
Players at Legend reset to rank 4, 0 stars.
All ranks will have 5 stars.
Starting in March, you will no longer earn the monthly card back by reaching Rank 20. Instead, you can earn each season’s card back by winning 5 games in Ranked Standard or Wild at any rank.
Card Changes – Please read the Upcoming Balance Changes blog on the official Hearthstone site for full details regarding the reasons and philosophy behind these changes.
Corridor Creeper – Now has 2 attack, down from 5.
Patches the Pirate – No longer has Charge.
Raza the Chained – Now reduces your Hero Power cost to 1 instead of 0.
Bonemare – Now costs 8 mana, up from 7.
Wildfest!
From February 19th through March 11th join us for a Wild party! Read the Wildfest blogfor details!
Wild cards return to the Arena for the duration of Wildfest.
Venture into the Wild – A Tavern Brawl celebrating Wild with pre-built decks.
The Wild Brawliseum – A special Tavern Brawl where you’ll build and lock-in a Wild deck, and then see if you can take it to twelve wins versus other players! Three losses and your run comes to an end.
Your first Brawliseum run is free!
Additional runs are available for the same price as Arena tickets. Also like the Arena, prizes are based on number of wins, and follow the Arena reward structure.
Year of the Mammoth Bundle
For a limited time, purchase 10 packs each of Journey to Un’goro, Knights of the Frozen Throne, and Kobolds & Catacombs—a total of 30 packs!—for a special price.

Added the following card backs:
Sparkles - Acquired from achieving Rank 20 in Ranked Play, February 2018.
Year of the Mammoth – Acquired from winning five games in Ranked Play, March 2018.
Bug Fixes & Updates
Gameplay
The turn timer for the first two turns of a match are now shorter, though they should still be significantly longer than most players take on those turns.
Switching from Valeera the Hollow to Deathstalker Rexxar will now correctly allow Rexxar’s Battlecry to destroy minions buffed to 2 health by Stormwind Champion or similar effects.
Nemsy Necrofizzle’s Hero frame is now golden if you have unlocked the golden Warlock Hero.
Removed rarity gems from several summoned minions.
Playing multiple copies of Temporus in a row will now queue up sequences of two turns for your opponent and two turns for you.
Fixed a bug where the Divine Shield provided by Elixir of Purity could not be silenced.
Spectators now see green highlights on playable cards for both players.
Fixed an issue that could cause Hearthstone to freeze when a spectated player disconnects and their opponent concedes.
Tooltips for Hero Cards now appear correctly when spectating.
Resolved a crash that could occur when drawing a Darkness Candle spell after The Darkness is no longer dormant.
Grand Archivist can now correctly cast the Darkness Candle spell if it is present in a player’s deck.
Resolved a crash that could occur when certain cost reducing cards were played.
Resolved an unintended interaction that could occur with Anomalus, Taunt minions, and Commanding Shout.
Added missing Collection Manager tooltips to several cards.
Resolved an issue that could cause a player to become stuck when reconnecting before the first turn.
Resolved an issue that would prevent the progress notification for more than one Daily Quest from being shown after a match is complete.
Ice Breaker now correctly destroys Rotface without activating his effect if he is Frozen.
Resolved interface issues that could arise when retiring an Arena game.
Resolved an issue that would allow the Friends menu to remain active while a Friendly Challenge is active.
Fixed various minor visual and text issues.
Dungeon Run & Adventures
The cards that appear in several loot categories have been adjusted slightly.
Cards stolen by Gloves of Mugging now appear in history tile when played by an opponent.
Resolved a visual issue with Candlebeard’s charge enchantment banner.
[Adventures] Atramedes now correctly uses his Hero Power whenever he should.
Mobile
Resolved an issue with the Collection Manager that could allow the set filter to be interacted with behind the “Done” button.
Scrolling through an Arena deck on a mobile device will no longer generate unnecessary prompts.
The “Back” button will now function correctly after an Arena run is complete.
History tiles that were queueing up while viewing a history event now populate correctly.
Resolved an issue that could cause crafted cards to remain visible over the Collection Manager.
Corrected a visual issue with the search bar in the Collection Manager.
[Android] Resolved an issue with the download progress indicator.
[iOS] Compatibility now requires iOS 8.0 or later.
[iOS] The client will no longer sometimes freeze when a spectated player wins a match.
(source)

According to the Principal Game Designer, Cubelock isn't as powerful as it seems.
Cubelock won't be touched in the upcoming balance changes which, for many people, is a sign that the deck will completely dominate the meta after said changes become active.
The deck is already prominent enough that people have started making false claims about it. A Reddit user claimed that he faced 17 Cubelocks in a row! However, Mike Donais put the matter into place by saying that there was no such streak in Blizzard's internal data and that Cubelock is currently the 12th best deck.
He subsequently explained that he expects the deck to rise after the nerfs, but he's not too worried because it's a challenging (and expensive, I would add) deck to master. If the team feels that Cubelock is too powerful, though, they will evaluate it.
mdonais
I just checked the data, and no one played 17 cubelocks in a row today.
If you are indeed having trouble with Cubelock there are several decks that beat it consistently right now. It is currently the 12th best deck.
I did enjoy the title of your post though. (source)

A couple people asked why the stats I mentioned don't metch VS power ranking so I looked up VS 79 and across all rankings Control Warlock is the 10th best deck. I assume they mix control and cube warlock in their stats. We have decks broken out a bit more but 10th gives you the general idea.
Obviously after the nurfs it will be stronger since none of the cards in cubelock are being nurfed and that concerns me but it is a pretty challenging deck with a lot of opportunities to show off player skill. People will eventually get better at playing it, but people will also put in more weapon destruction or silence cards if it gets more popular.
I am excited to see what people figure out after the patch. If Warlock is a big problem after people have some time to adjust and tune the new decks then we will look into it. I have said many times before that win rate is not the most important factor in our nurf decisions. How people feel matters more, so we will listen to players and make decisions based on that, just like we did in the past with Quest Rogue and Patron Warrior. (source)